Mobile Technology PR campaigns

I've talked a lot about how PR has and is using social media as a way of communicating to many people.  My main concentration was on Twitter and Facebook.  A couple of weeks ago, as part of our digital media module we had to give a presentation on how mobile technologies can be used for a PR campaign.  Today I shall talk about it today and see what you think!

With 3G incorporated on many mobile phones and the recent news of 4G it is only a matter of time that mobile phones will be many people's source of information (whether it is their primary source is one to argue about).  This phenomena will evolve in time (sounds like a sci-fi movie) and maybe you are sitting there slightly sceptic, but already Public Relations are using mobile technologies in the following ways:

Funnily enough the best uses of mobile PR seem to be from mobile brands, according to PR Week.  Threepipe's "Cut it Out" campaign for Vodafone aimed to reduce mobile phone bullying.  The agency devised a film-making competition.  300,000 cinema goers have downloaded the winning film via bluetooth on to their handsets.  The co-founder of Threepipe, Jim Hawker, pointed out that the mobile channel is under-exploited by Public Relations.

Health agencies have used mobile technologies as a way to make people aware of campaigns and to let them interact.  For instance, the FSA last year developed a mobile salt calculator app to better monitor salt consumption.

Using text messages is another way for Doctors or health professionals to remind patients to attend appointments or come in for checkups has already become routine in PCTs and hospitals, such as Addenbrooke's Hospital NHS Trust and Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill.  It is a problem for people missing their appointments and costs the NHS a lot of money so this can help alleviate this problem.  It also helps communication between the patient and the doctor.

In politics, the most obvious campaign was Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  He embraced the mobile technology and arguably brought the candidate closer to the people.  It certainly created more people getting involved in politics and more enthusiasm amongst the voters.  Unlike the traditional methods of campaigning during an election, Barack Obama can communicate a vital piece of information to the over 260 million US mobile subscribers.  In his presidential campaign over 3 million people subscribed and opted-in to stay in touch.

Charities, especially considering January's Haiti Earthquake has made non-profit organisations take note of how important text-donations are.  Red Cross and dec.org received enormous publicity and generated well over $30 million dollars, according to CNN.  This is blatantly a strategic tool for fundraising. 

These are only a few examples and there are many more apps and other ways for PR agencies to incorporate mobile technologies into their work.  Diffusion Mobile who work primarily concentrate on mobile technologies,

For firms pioneering new mobile marketing disciplines and channels, PR has become the most important tool to educate and influence brand owners and marketing directors and to showcase success and ROI.

In my opinion, from researching this topic is that many PR consultancies or indeed PR practitioners are not using mobile technologies to their advantage.  There is a lot of commentary on the web of how organisations could use mobile technology to their potential and progression, but as of yet many are not using it.  As commentators predict we'll all be using smartphones by 2015.  This means that PR should embrace mobile technology now to keep up with news or developments.  According to PR Week a survey of 28 technology and business journalists, 57% of them said that mobile technologies are not useful in PR.  So, what do you think of PR using mobile technologies successfully - is it really a worthwhile tool?

I think so, if not now then definitely in the future.

Pictures:
1.Ref: Tecu
2Ref: mobileshop
3.Ref: smallwire
4. Ref: mobileshop